TAMPA - Some appraisers who lost their licenses for unethical behavior during the housing boom are staying in the real estate business.

They're becoming real estate agents, according to a report by the national Center for Public Integrity.

Instead of appraising homes for sale, some just obtained a license to sell homes for a living.

The center's report found that in Florida and California, among the states hardest-hit by the foreclosure crisis, hundreds of individuals whose appraisal licenses were revoked have received other licenses that allow them to continue to represent the public in real estate sales.

The report specifically mentions a Florida appraiser who lost his license after "forging a home appraisal." The Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board investigated and yanked his license. There was no law, however, to prevent him from becoming a real estate agent.

The center's report found that the violations that led to the revocation of licenses ranged from incompetence to fraud committed for personal financial gain.

The report does not offer specific numbers of such appraisers, but says experts interviewed believe there are hundreds nationwide. It is difficult to identify all of the agents because of the "patchwork of agency oversight," the report says.

"There's a lot more that you are never going to find," said Pamela Crowley, who runs the Web site Mortgage Fraud Watch List. "Those of us who have been active in trying to police our own have come to the conclusion that our policing agencies don't want that."

Unethical appraisers often play a center role in mortgage fraud by inflating or deflating actual home values to lenders. That type of fraud contributed to the nationwide housing meltdown, which led the current economic crisis.

Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804.